E. Allan Farnsworth, (born June 30, 1928, Providence, R.I.—died Jan. 31, 2005, Englewood, N.J.) American legal scholar who , was regarded as the leading expert in U.S. contract law and wrote standard references on the subject. He taught contract law at Columbia University, New York City, from 1954 and frequently represented the U.S. at international trade conferences and at the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. The American Law Institute in 1971 asked him to help create a reference source on contract law, and the Restatement (Second) on Contracts was published in 1981. His Farnsworth on Contracts (1990) became the standard textbook on the subject.

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